Guide

How to run multiple Claude accounts at once

Claude Desktop only lets you sign into one account at a time. Here's how to keep Work, Personal, and every client account signed in side by side — fully isolated, on macOS and Windows.

Updated August 2026 · ~4 min read

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The problem: one account at a time

If you use Claude for more than one thing — a day job, personal projects, a couple of clients — you've hit the wall. Claude Desktop signs you into a single account and enforces a single running instance. Switching means logging out of one account and back into another, over and over, losing your place each time.

People try all sorts of workarounds: separate browser profiles, a second machine, macOS user accounts, or juggling the web app in incognito windows. They all work a little, and all of them are friction you feel every single day.

The clean fix: isolated profiles that run together

Personae is a small, free app that runs multiple Claude Desktop accounts at the same time — each in its own window and Dock icon, each with its own colour, all signed in at once. No more logging out to switch.

The key idea is true isolation. Every profile gets its own data directory — a separate login, chat history, cookies, and even MCP settings. Nothing from one account is ever visible to another. And because there's no single-instance lock, you can have Work and Personal open simultaneously.

Personae doesn't repackage Claude — it orchestrates the copy of Claude Desktop you already have installed. That's why it keeps working after every Claude auto-update.

Set it up in under a minute

1. Name a profile "Work", "Personal", a client — whatever you juggle. Pick a colour, or let Personae choose one.
2. It carves out a space Personae creates an isolated data directory and a tinted app icon, then registers it with your system so it shows up in Spotlight and the Dock.
3. Launch & sign in once Open it, sign in, and it stays signed in — in its own window, forever. Repeat for as many accounts as you need.

It's built for the keyboard, too: ⌘N for a new profile, ⌘L to launch, ⏎ to open, ⌫ to remove.

Why not just use browser profiles?

You can run the Claude web app in separate browser profiles, and for light use that's fine. But you lose the native Claude Desktop experience — global shortcuts, the menu-bar presence, MCP integrations, and desktop notifications. Personae gives you the real desktop app, multiplied, with each account isolated at the data-directory level rather than relying on a browser's cookie jar.

Is it private?

Yes. There's no account to create, no server, and no telemetry. Personae only orchestrates the Claude Desktop already on your machine; every profile's data stays local and isolated. It's a native app of a few megabytes (built on Tauri, not another bundled Chromium), so it's light and stays out of your way.

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